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Published every Thursday by The Franklin Frees
Franklin. N. C. Telephone 24
? WKIMAR JONES Editor
BOB 8. SLOAN Business Manager
J. P. BRADY News Editor
MRS. EDWARD CRAWFORD Office Manager
CARL P. CABE Mechanical Superintendent
FRANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent
DAVID H. SUTTON Stereotyper
CHARLES E. WHITTINOTON Pressman
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NOVEMBER 18, 1954
Eisenhower And Truman
Probably neither man would welcome being liken
ed to the other, but it often seems to us that Presi
dent Eisenhower and former President Truipan
are remarkably alike, in one particular. Both seem
to possess the unhappy knack of shocking people,
even their most ardent admirers.
There the similarity ends, though, because they
are completely opposite in the way they do it.
Mr. Truman, as President, seemed to go along
doing one small, unbecoming thing, day after day
and week a'fter week ? often things there was no
occasion for him to do. Then, just when people's
patience was nearing the breaking point, he would
galvanize them into admiration by some really su
perb statement or action ? the statement or action
of a great man.
Mr. Eisenhower, on the other hand, usually takes
an admirably lofty and dignified approach to prob
lems. Then, just when people are beginning to think
that here is a really great man, he descends to
levels rarely attained by Truman.
The most shocking example of that was his
statement, just before the election, that the Repub
licans would find a way to provide jobs for the un
?m'ployed, without spilling "the blood of our sons
?on the battlefield". The obvious implication was
that that was the way the Democrats would solve
the problem. Then; apparently to make sure the
implication registered, he added that when the
Democrats were in power there never was prosper
ity and .peace at the .same time.
It is hard to understand how any man holding
the great office of President of the United States
could bring himself to such hypocrisy and pettiness.
And thousands of persons who admire Mr. Eis
enhower, or, at the least, want to give him the
benefit of the doubt, shake their heads in wonder
ment at his urging that the Dixon-Yates matter
he .speedily approved ? and be put into effect be
fore the people of this country are permitted to
know the terms of that agreement.
But last week Mr. Eisenhower got back to his
usual high level. He did something that neither
Truman nor Roosevelt did. They had paid political
debts with appointments to the Supreme Court so
often that, as of today, only one man on the court
had had judicial experience before appointment to
the high court. Mr. Eisenhower undoubtedly has
political debts to pay; but in naming John Marshall
Harlan to succeed Justice Jackson he apparently
forgot politics". In any case, in appointing a man to
the highest judicial body in the land, he chose one
with training and experience in the administration
of justice.
Mirror Does Its Work
In Chapel Hill the other day there died a man
?who probably had had greater influence on the con
temporary South than the governor of any state or
other public official.
Dr. Howard \.Y. Odum, sociologist, teacher, and
author, changed the South by changing the way
the people of the South think.
Most people, whether as individuals or as groups,
have a lot of illusions about themselves. They think
they are thus and so because they once were, or
because somebody said they were, or because they
would like to be. Often the way they see themselves
is a long, long way from the way they are.
Dr. Odum, in his quiet, gentle way, held up be
fore the South facts about the region ? like a mir
ror. And gradually, over the years, Southerners
have come to see themselves and their region with
remarkable clarity. If that is truer of the South
today than of some other regions, it is because of
the objective fact-finding of Dr. Odum and men
like him.
Perhaps, with time, the fact-finders will dispel
?even the illusions about the South held by many
persons outside the region!
Let's Talk Politics
With the election more than two weeks in the
past, the time has come to forget any bitterness -
that may have developed during the campaign;
time for all of us, of whatever political convictions,
to join together in our common task of making
Macon County a better place to live.
It is NOT time, though, to adjourn politics. In
a democracy, that time should never come.
Because politics, in the best sense of the word,
affects every one of us, every day of our lives;
politics, as Webster defines the word, is "the art
of government or the administration of public af
fairs". Government governs and public affairs are
administered day by day ? not just at election
time. And how good the government is and how
well the public affairs are administered depends
largely on how -well informed you and I and other
citizens are, and how sound our opinions are; for
it is public opinion that is the ultimate force in
America. And our opinions will be sound, usually,
in proportion as there is discussion.
One forum for such discussions is the news
paper, and we take this opportunity to renew a
longstanding invitation to readers to use the ed
itorial page columns of The Press as such a forum.
Letters discussing questions of public interest al
ways are welcomed, from persons of all shades of
political opinion. That is true whether they deal
with the Dixon-Yates deal, parity, what to do
about the growing spread between this state's rev
nue and demand for money for educational and
other services, or problems of Macon County,
Franklin, and Highlands!
We Wonder . . .
V
Two letters, mailed by a Franklin business con
cern to a person in Atlanta, have been returned to
the sender by the Atlanta Post Office, with the
notation that the addressee had moved and left no
forwarding address.
The Franklin postmarks show that one of the
letters was mailed here March 6, 1953, the other
March 21, 1953. They got back to the sender here
November 10, 1954 ? 20 months after they were
mailed.
Which leads us to wonder if the Atlanta Post
Office has not taken a bit too literally the moral
of the old story of the tortoise and the hare.
? Letters
DWINDLING MINORITY
Dear Weimar,
Like you, I can't abide the expression different than. After
reading what you said about it I did a bit ol research on the
subject, and I regret to tell you that you, the Virginia editor
who reprinted your remarks, and I belong to a fast dwindling
minority. It seems that practically every master of the English
language from Oliver Goldsmith to Winston Churchill says
different than, and that it is generally regarded as acceptable
even if not exactly correct.
However, it may cheer you up to know that Shakespeare
never used it. Although he wrote he don't, and it's me, and
like when he should have used as, never once in all his writ
ings did Shakespeare say different than.
With many good wishes,
ANNIEWILL SILER.
New York City.
Others' Opinions
AGE-OLD DIN
(From the Nashville Banner!
A way has been found (it says here, in a report from the
University of Wisconsin) to "age" eheddar cheese by bombard
ing it with ultrasonic waves of sound. And we might add that
something of the same phenomenon applies to people. In fact,
nothing can age a person quicker, sap his or her strength,
and bring on mental debilities, than having to listen to the in
cessant clamor of a jukebox, for instance; or other noises, ul
trasonic or otherwise.
'FELL OFF' MULE
(Stanly News and Press)
Many stories have been told about the human tendency to
invent excuses for minor wrongdoings. The best we've heard
lately is about the native of a remote section of the U. S. who
was riding his mule down a narrow lane. As he passed an ap
ple orchard he spotted some branches laden with ripe fruit.
From the mule's back he reached up to pick some apples, and
at the same moment the animal lurched forward, leaving the
man hanging perilously from the tree. Just then the owner of
the orchard came along the road. "Hey!" he yelled. "What are
you doing there?" "Nothin', mister," replied the native. "I just
fell off my mule!"
UNWANTED INDUSTRIES
(Roy Parker, Jr., In Northampton News)
This week I read an editorial from the Chapel Hill News
Leader that put Into print one of the problems of the "great
Look Out! Mere It Comes, Mr. Buchanan . . .
1
/ i ? Staff Photo by J. P. Brady
. . . Here comes a monster dirt-moving machine, working in a 40-foot road cut just ivorth of
Mountain City, Ga.
They're really going ahead with the Georgia end of the Franklin-Tallubth Falls highway.
If we're going to finish our part of the road before Georgia gets through ? as you, as 14th
division highway commissioner, have said ? we'll have to hurry, won't we, Mr. Buchanan?
Industry-hunt" the Column had been trying to make articulate.
The edit quoted a fellow who spoke in this section ? a man
with the industry-conscious Conservation and Development
Board ? to the "effect that "A $35 payroll is no help to a town."
What he was pointing out was the fact that towns taking part
in the Industry-hunt should study their quarry carefully and
make certain it'll put more in the town than it would take
out. North Carolina already has one of the lowest per capita
incomes In the nation. A state full of Industries with payrolls
way below the national average, or even below the state aver
age, does not Improve anything.
And laying aside the statistics, such industry doesn't do any
thing toward helping the human, individual problems that
must be adjusted in the state. It simply puts off the day when
we must find the means of providing a better life and a richer
life to the folks who are victims of our strange economic situ
ation. A landscape dotted with factories Is a wonderful thing,
but a landscape dotted with happy, healthy, adequately-educa
ted, economically-sound people is a lot more wonderful. It la a
hard situation to work out, and this lsnt to say that most of
the folks Interested In the problem and working on the prob
lem aren't conscious In their work and Ideals.
TELLING KAY OFF
(Henry Dlggs In Smlthfleld Herald)
Billy Dickens, one of the brighter light to graduate from
Smlthfleld High School In recent years, is currently enrolled
at the University of North Carolina. To supplement his In
come, Billy has a part time Job at the Communications Center,
that part of the university which has to do with radio, tele
vision, photography, etc.
Not long ago Billy was directing the production of a pro
gram, or to be more specific, he was In charge of the sound
for the program. Things went pretty well, but there was one
fellow In particular who didn't impress Billy with his approach
to the problem at hand.
Finally, after bearing it as long as he could, and after re
peated warnings to the gentleman to "Stand closer to the
microphone," Billy halted the program and walked up to the
gentleman.
"What's the matter?" inquired Dickens. "Are you afraid of
that microphone? Stand closer to it. It's not going to hurt
you!"
With that stern admonition, Dickens strolled back to the
control room.
Later on, and to his great consternation, he found that the
gentleman he'd "read off" for not standing close enough to the
mike was none other than the famous Kay Kyser, who has
probably spent more time in front of a microphone than
Dickens fcas lived!
What greater or better gift can we offer the republic than
to "teach and instruct our youth. ? Cicero.
STRICTLY
PERSONAL
By WEIMAR JONES
Macon County isolated?
Most of us would deny it In
dignantly. But what about the
facts?
Well, here are two bits of evi
dence about the isolation of
at least parts of it.
Try to get someone in the
Nantahala area by telephone:
your call goes from Franklin to
Asheville, from Asheville to
.Murphy, then back to Macon
County, and you finally reach
your party via a Forest Service
line ? if the line is in order.
That, however, Is merely odd,
by comparison with the High
lands bus situation.
How does a resident of High
lands who wishes to visit his
county seat of Franklin get
here by bus? He can make It
either of two ways. He can go
to Asheville and then back to
Franklin. Or he can go to At
lanta, and from the capital of
Georgia back into his native
state and to his county seat ?
just 20 miles from the place he
started from!
Does the State Utilities Com
mission just shut its eyes to
this gross failure to provide
service? It would be my suspic
ion that the State Utilities
Commission doesn't even know
what the situation is.
? ? *
We hear a lot about how low
North Carolina ranks among
other states, in per capita in
come, in the amount spent per
school pupil, etc.
Well, there's one field in
which North Carolina is far
above the average ? farming.
On an average during the
past three years, the Increase
in the value of North Carolina's
farm products has been 77 per
cent greater than the average
increase for the nation. In other
words, for every dollar Increase
shown by the nation as a
whole, North Carolina has had
an Increase of $1.77.
The amount, In dollars, of
North Carolina's margin over
the average for the nation is
put at $155,000,000 per year.
And that, mind you, is not the
value of North Carolina's total
Increase, but the value of the
margin by which North Caro
lina has led the country.
Speaking of farming, what's
happened to country butter
milk?
When you go in a restaurant
in Franklin or Highlands and
order buttermilk, what do you
get? You get something gener
ally referred to as cream but
termilk, a concoction that never
saw a churn.
Don't misunderstand me.
like cream buttermilk. But ?
also like country buttermilk;
and the two are as different as
night and day. To try to sub
stitute cream buttermilk for the
real thing ? churned clabbered
cream, with its own Inimitable
tang, and with great gobs of
golden butter floating in it ?
why that would be like trying
to substitute cake ftir cornbread
when what you wanted was
cornbread.
You can buy so-called cream
buttermilk anywhere. You can't
country buttermilk. And people
want what Is hard to get.
Hence this suggestion to local
restaurants: Offer your customs
ers real country buttermilk. It
would make a tremendous hit
with many home folks and a
whale of a lot of tourists ?
and provide a market for a local'
product.
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Press)
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Mr. J. Alex Moore was the
only candidate who received
over one thousand votes. He
polled 1,021.
When the citizens of this sec
tion awoke Sunday morning,
they discovered that the ground
was covered with a sheet of
snow, the firsts of the season.
Mr. E. K. Cunningham bought
what is known as the Allman
residence and lot on West Main
Street, next to the Porter ware
house, last Saturday. The price
paid was $3,000.
25 YEARS AGO 1
The first meeting of the I
Highlands Merrimakers Club I
was held at the home of CaroJ I
line and Jack Hall Monday eve- 1
ning. This club is for the pur- I
pose of promoting fun, and I
meetings will be held once a I
week and dances onoe a month.^a
The Highlands Merrimake;^^?
Club promises to be a great ?
success. ?
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Palmer were
in Andrews last Sunday.
10 YEAR SAGO
1st Lt. Mack Setser, son of
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Setser, has
just been home on leave. He
spent 27 months in the Pacific
area and Is now at New River.
Mr. and .Mrs. Henry W. Cabe
left Sunday morning for Ral
eigh, where Mr. Cabe attended
a bankers association and Mrs.
Cabe will visit. ?*???
Cpl. Richard W. Pearson
writes his parents, Mr. and Mrs
A. Rockwell Nail, that he is re
cuperating in a hospital In
England, from wounds received
presumably in Prance. Cpl.
Pearson is with the Infantry di
vision. ? Highlands item.